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Illinois Education Secretary Beth Purvis on School Funding Reform

After years of working on school funding reform in both the General Assembly and the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission, lawmakers crafted a bill using an evidence-based funding model to level the playing field between wealthier and poorer school districts across the state.

Rauner heaped praise on Purvis at the bill signing. “Let me be clear. This bill would not be coming law today if it weren’t for Dr. Beth Purvis,” he said.

Purvis credits Rauner for the bill’s passage and for keeping school from staying closed this fall. “The important thing is that the leaders came together. The governor supported this. And that we had bicameral, bipartisan work lead by Governor Rauner to make sure that didn’t happen,” Purvis said on WLS-AM.

“Something this important deserved sunlight. Instead, it was cobbled together in the back room by a handful of people and pushed down the throats of the rank-and-file legislators,” said state Sen. Sam McCann (R-Plainview).

“It now introduces a brand new tax credit for the wealthy who donate to scholarship funds for private schools,” McCann added. “It is not a voucher system, but it is rather more of a pay-to-play opportunity for the state’s most well-connected.”

What remains unclear is how the state, which has a $15 billion backlog of bills, will pay for the $75 million private school tax credits for the next five years and the billions of dollars needed to fully phase in the evidence-based school funding model.